NEW YORK, NY – Another week is in the books and that means it is time to bring you up to speed on the latest Rugby News, Transactions and match schedules. So without further delay, let’s begin the Weekend Rugby Update:
News & Transactions:
Super Rugby: The Crusaders announced that Scott Robertson will replace Todd Blackadder at the helm of their coaching team from 2017… Check out this interview with Coach Blackadder from the days when we were still shackled as correspondents on MeetTheMatts.com:
The Waratahs announced the re-signing of Paddy Ryan for two years, until the end of 2018… Kings duo Shane Gates and Aidon Davis have both signed contracts that will see them ply their trade abroad at the end of the 2016 season. Gates, the franchise’s current vice-captain, has secured a deal which see him move to Japan side the NTT Shining Arcs while loose forward Davis will link up with the three-time European champions, Toulon ahead of the 2016/17 season… The Western Force announced that their head coach, Michael Foley, has vacated his role with immediate effect. Foley’s departure will see current senior assistant coach Dave Wessels assume a caretaker role for the team’s final three matches of the 2016 season while the club will immediately commence a process to appoint a new head coach for 2017.
Top14: A new agreement between the Federation de French Rugby (FFR) and Ligue de National Rugby (LNR) has been approved by the Federal Bureau of FFR and today by the Director of the LNR Committee. It will now be submitted to the General Meetings of the FFR July 2 and July 9 NRL. For the full list of changes, click here.
Aviva Premiership: Bath announced that young second-row Charlie Ewels has extended his contract after an impressive season… Sale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond confirmed that Juandré Kruger will not be joining the club as anticipated.
Pro12: The Scarlets secured the signing of South African second-row Rynier Bernardo from the Ospreys.
USA Rugby: Five qualifying events are set for June 18 as teams make their initial push towards a place in the 2016 USA Rugby Club 7s National Championships, to be held August 13-14. Each event is for one of the five competitive regions, the Midwest, the Atlantic North, Florida, True South and finally the Pacific. USA Rugby announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Thorne Research to be their exclusive nutritional supplement partner, providing its national team members with effective and safe nutritional supplements to support athlete health.
World Rugby: The World Rugby website has the has the Olympic sevens training squad for Australia and South Africa.
The weekend’s fixtures:
PRO Rugby: Heading into the tenth week of action in the inaugural season, San Francisco travels down state to face San Diego. In an anticipated match-up Ohio will head to Denver.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Sat – 18 Jun 2016
San Francisco – San Diego
Sun – 19 Jun 2016
Ohio – Denver
Top 14: The playoffs for the Top 14 finally arrived. We are at the semi-final stage of the knockout round. The matches for the weekend began when the Champions Cup finalists Racing 92 traveled to Clermont, in the match, Dan Carter‘s conversion of Juan Imhoff‘s try sealed an extra-time win for Racing 92 over in Rennes. Powerhouse Toulon will face a very determined hile Montpellier side in the other semi-final.
Here are the results:
Fri – 17 Jun 16
Clermont Auvergne 33-34 Racing 92
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 18 Jun 16
Toulon – Montpellier
June Internationals: The Men’s June International season continues this weekend and there are a lot matches to go over. In the first match of the weekend, a great second-half fight by the England Saxons saw them beat South Africa “A”. In the other earlier match of the weekend, a late penalty by Kenyan flier Darwin Mukidza saw Kenya complete a victory over Brazil. In the long list of matches for Saturday, we begin with New Zealand against Wales in the second test of their three test series. Australia and England also have their second test, along with South Africa and Ireland. The fixture list continues with Japan taking on Scotland, Canada facing Russia and Georgia‘s tour of the South Pacific face Tonga. The final matches of the weekend have Argentina taken on a weakened France and United States hosting Italy.
Here are the results:
Fri – 17 Jun 16
South Africa ‘A’ 26-29 England Saxons
Brazil 17-18 Kenya
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 18 Jun 16
New Zealand – Wales
Australia – England
South Africa – Ireland
Japan – Scotland
Canada – Russia
Tonga – Georgia
Sun – 19 Jun 16
Argentina – France
United States – Italy
Junior World Cup: The JWC is the yearly World Cup held for U-20 teams of the top tier rugby playing nations. Georgia qualified for it by winning last year’s Junior World Trophy, the second tier competition. This year’s tournament is being held in Manchester, England. For those looking to watch the action in the USA, the JWC can be seen using the Watch ESPN app on your Roku, Firestick and other devices or on ESPN3.com. In the third and final round of pool matches held on the midweek, Argentina defeated Japan, Scotland cruised past Italy, and Ireland crushed Georgia. New Zealand won by the smallest margin possible against Wales and England outlasted Australia, and finally South Africa topped France. This means going into the knockout round, England are the top seeds and will face South Africa while fellow pool winners Ireland and Argentina will meet in the second final.
Here are the results:
Wed – 15 Jun 16
Argentina 39-20 Japan
Scotland 27-14 Italy
Ireland 35-7 Georgia
New Zealand 18-17 Wales
England 17-13 Australia
South Africa 40-31 France
Nations Cup – The 11th annual World Rugby Nations Cup will be held in Bucharest, Romania for the tenth time in a row. It will be played between 9th and 18th of June. Normally it is run alongside the World Rugby Tbilisi Cup in Georgia but due to Georgia’s tour of the Pacific Islands in June, the Tbilisi Cup will not take place this year. Instead, the Nations Cup will feature six teams split in two pools of three, where the three European teams play the other three teams. All fixtures will be played at the 5,000 capacity Stadionul National de Rugby. The other teams in the tournament are Namibia, Spain, Emerging Italy, Uruguay and the Argentina XV. The final round of matches has the hosts Romania up against the Argentina XV, Namibia facing Emerging Italy with Uruguay and Spain doing battle.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 17 Jun 16
NC: Romania – Argentina XV
NC: Namibia – Emerging Italy
NC: Uruguay – Spain
Pacific Nations Cup: Of all of World Rugby’s Cup tournaments to benefit Tier 2 and Tier 3 nations, the Pacific Nations Cup is arguably the biggest and best. The Pacific island nations of Tonga, Fiji and Manu Samoa are the top tier 2 nations in the world. They produce some of the world’s best players and on occasion a side can be found to be ranked higher than a 6 Nations side. This year’s PNC doubles as Rugby World Cup 2019 qualifying matches. With Georgia‘s tour of the Pacific Islands, it appears that when one of the three nations is suppose to be on a bye, they will be playing Georgia. While Tonga play Georgia as we previously mentioned, Fiji will do battle with Samoa in the second round of action.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 17 Jun 16
Fiji – Samoa
Rugby Americas North: Another regional tournament in full swing is the Rugby Americas North (formerly the North America and Caribbean Rugby Association or NACRA) Championship. The RAN Championship is for the countries in North America and the Caribbean. RAN has 2 zones with top level (championship) and a bottom level (cup). Each Championship zone has 3 teams while the Cup Zones have 4 each. The Zones are regionally divided, so there is a North Zone and South Zone. USA Rugby competes in the North Zone Championship division. The USA is represented by the USA South Regional all-star team, in order to develop talent and make the competition a much fairer one. All of this year’s matches will double as World Cup Qualifiers. This weekend in the North, the Bermuda will be on the road, as they take on the Cayman Islands. In the South conference, Trinidad & Tobago tackle Guyana and Jamaica clash with Barbados.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 17 Jun 16
South: Trinidad & Tobago – Guyana
South: Jamaica – Barbados
North: Cayman Islands – Bermuda
Africa Cup: The Africa Cup 2016 will be the sixteenth edition of the continental tournament that involves the best African national teams, organized by the Rugby Afrique, formerly known as the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR). Given their superiority, the South African national team has rarely participated in most tournaments. The four times the SARU has participated, they sent either a U-23 team or amateur side, and went on to win it. Beyond South Africa, there are up to 27 rugby countries in the Cup with the national participants in the two divisions with each division divided into three groups (1A, 1B, 1C, 2 West, 2 East, and 2 South), with promotion and relegation. In 1B, the teams are divided into pools and in pool A action this weekend, Madagascar will host Senegal in their capital of Antananarivo.
Here is the schedule:
Sun – 19 Jun 16
1B (Pool A): Madagascar – Senegal
2016 Currie Cup qualification: The tournament is a competition between which will be played between 9 April and 23 July 2016. It will feature all fourteen South African provincial unions plus the Welwitschias from Namibia and will also serve as a qualifying competition for the 2016 Currie Cup, the 78th edition of South Africa’s premier domestic rugby union competition. Nine teams from this competition will play in the 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division, while the remaining six teams will play in the 2016 Currie Cup First Division. Round Ten’s fixtures began with Boland making light work of Border. The remaining matches see Free State and Leopards, Blue Bulls against Falcons, the Welwitschias challenge SouthWest District, Western Province and Griffons tangle and finally the Sharks XV take on Pumas.
Here are the results:
Thu – 16 Jun 16
Border Bulldogs 17–38 Boland Cavaliers
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 18 Jun 16
Free State XV – Leopards
Blue Bulls – Falcons
Sun – 19 Jun 16
Welwitschias – SWD Eagles
Western Province – Griffons
Sharks XV – Pumas
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